October 02.17
A little toss - a big difference
Allow me to paraphrase an old legend. Thousands of star fish are swept from the
ocean onto sandy dry beaches. Many of them will die. Suddenly one star fish is
retrieved and tossed gently back into the water by a young boy. Then another
and another. One by one, a few star fish
are salvaged and returned to their wet home. An onlooker asks the boy, ‘Why would you make such a
trivial effort? The disaster is huge. Thousands of fish are dead. You are wasting your time. How can this make
any significant difference?’ The boy
looks at the fish in his hand, smiles, and says “It makes a difference for this
one.”
In Kenya, as
in many parts of the world, there are countless star fish stories which are no
legend. The stark truth illuminates every waking day. It feels like so many
people are ‘washed up’ onto dry land, struggling to survive. Poverty is real
and affects all areas of life. Basic needs (food, clean water, shelter) are not
always easily acquired. Education standards and resources are limited. Poor road conditions present transportation
dilemmas. Cultural stigmas affect family
and community life. How do we tackle such huge giants? What difference can an
ordinary person make?
Here are a
few snap shots of those who gave ‘a little toss’ to a few star fish this year
and made a big difference.
1 A donation of $100US from an anonymous donor
provided five rolls of material for the Survivors new sewing group. These women
are turning their lives away from prostitution and choosing an admirable way to
make a living. They just need a little support.
2 A $200US donation makes it possible for 40 young
boys to don new t-shirts. Since sharing this in my last blog, I discovered that
these t-shirts actually help protect the boys from being thrown in jail.
Because they live on the streets at night, they are often picked up by the
police. When the police see them wearing the t-shirts with the SA logo, they
know they are part of our program. They believe the boys are trying to make a change
in their lives so they leave them alone.
3 A $600CDN donation from two retired school
teachers was used to buy sewing machines for a School with children who are
deaf and hearing impaired. The school has
a vocational program empowering those with a disability to overcome a stigma
that puts a shadow over them. With the support of these new sewing machines, they can learn tailoring skills to make their school uniforms and encourage their dream of one day owning a business.
A $2500 donation (combined effort from more
than one person) made it possible for one of our corps to purchase much needed
flooring tiles for their dirt floor. This corps building is one of hundreds in desperate
need of improvements. The people were so happy to gather for worship and
actually have a clean surface to walk on.
Corps building before:
Corps building after:
5 Salvationists on the local level also contribute
to identified needs. When the staff at the Training College revealed an anxious
situation of lack of food for the Cadets, the Women’s Ministry department
banned together across the Territory and accumulated many pounds of beans, maize
flour, cooking oil, sugar, and other essentials to provide nutrition for those
training to become the next spiritual leaders in the country.
Each of
these donations (by one person or several people) doesn’t solve all the
problems in Kenya but it sure makes a difference to the ones ‘catching the toss’. Is
that a star fish I see in your hand?
